Eastern gray squirrels top every mammal on Massachusetts’ record list, with over 24,000 logged sightings stretching from Blue Hills Reservation’s oak woods south of Boston to the salt marsh edges at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on the North Shore. That range reflects how little this squirrel cares about habitat type. It does just as well in a city park as in unbroken forest, which is exactly why it turns up almost everywhere someone’s looking.
Records carry two clear peaks: a spring rise in April and a bigger one in September and October. The fall surge lines up with acorn and hickory nut season, when squirrels are constantly on the move burying food for winter, making them far easier to spot than during the quiet stretch of late summer.
Full species profile
